"There is no reality except in action," wrote Jean-Paul Sartre. For athletes, life without competition presents an existential crisis. After all, what is a professional competitor who cannot compete? Germany's Timo Boll is certainly a man of action. The 39-year-old legend has trained since childhood to be a professional table tennis player. Thus, the suspension of international competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic likely represents his first real break in three decades. For a five-time Olympian like Boll, however, this type of forced vacation is an unwelcome disruption in his training regimen. While still comfortably ranked #10 in the world, time is not on his side. Boll will be 40 when the postponed Tokyo Olympics are finally held next summer. After nearly three months of forced inactivity, Boll and some of his German league mates finally got to feel the pressure of a competitive match again. The German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) teamed up with the Borussia Düsseldorf Table Tennis Club to stage the Düsseldorf Masters, a weekly tournament concluding in August. Of course, this would not be the traditional tournament with raucous fans packed in the stands. In observance of the "new normal," the ARAG Centre was empty and players observed strict social distancing protocols. Despite the spartan setting, German head coach Jörg Rosskopf did not have to twist anyone's arm to fill out the brackets. "The Dusseldorf Masters are a great opportunity to play regular competition again after weeks of pure practice," said Rosskopf. "Our players were absolutely thrilled when we presented this idea to them." Like the Tin Man being anointed with the oil can, Boll was thrilled to shake off the rust. "My last match I played was on my birthday in a league match against Ochsenhausen, so it’s quite different whether you play a training match or the tournament now," says Boll. "It puts you under stress in a completely different way. Therefore we are all very happy that we can finally play a match again." In case it has slipped your mind, Boll completed his last solar orbit on March 8th. That gives you over nine months to get him something special for the big 4-0! While Boll was the top seed, he faced stiff competition from compatriots like Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska, with all three players listed among the world's top 20 players. Boll's fellow finalist, however, was quite the dark horse: his countryman Steffen Mengel, ranked a distant #140 in the world. Despite his fairy tale run to the final, Mengel could not convert the key points against the living legend Boll, who secured the Week 1 win with a (12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6) scoreline. "It was a good final, Menzi put up a lot of resistance," said Boll. "There was a good level and some really top class rallies. I really had to work hard to bring the game home. I’m really very happy with the first competition in a long time." Mengel (or "Menzi" to his Freunde), to his credit, gave credit where credit was due. "Timo played well, I think the match was nice to watch," he said. "All in all I had my chance in the first game when Timo was down and changed hands. There were one or two points that could have been mine. In the end Timo played really strong and deserved to win." With the win, Boll takes pole position in the summer series with 50 points, 30 going to Mengel. The top eight points-getters will face off in August for all the marbles. While the ITTF continues to navigate when and how to safely resume international competition, new locals-only events like the Düsseldorf Masters or the 2020 Swedish Duel give competitors and fans alike something to do besides staring into the void. After all, as Nietzsche warned, "If thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes back into thee."

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